Decentralization and Secession as a Viable Alternative to the Tyrannical Status Quo

Scott Lazarowitz
Activist Post

Because of the continuing fiascos in Washington; activists on the left and on the right, libertarians and socialists, will have to begin to face the fact that looking to the central planning elites in Washington for answers is futile . . . even counter-productive.

The debt ceiling will be raised for the 75th time since 1962, no real spending cuts will happen, taxes will again be raised, and happy days are here again for the politicians, the life-long bureaucrats, the industrial lobbyists and lawyers, and, especially, the Wall Street fat cats.

 “Well, the next time they will implement their promised reforms,” say those who are still faithful in the central planning bureaucrats. But our chosen representatives do not fulfill their promises, and they never will.  Sooner or later, we are going to have to face the reality that central planning is a promise that can never be kept.

I have been trying to get that message across, especially in my March 2010 prediction that the 2010 elections would be just another rearranging of deck chairs (and I was right).

But it appears that too many people just have blind faith in central planning and the fantasy that “reforming” an inherently flawed system could ever work.

Faith in central planning, despite all the destruction the U.S. government has wrought, is something that needs to be overcome.

Food  activists  have begun to understand the benefits of decentralization, as have those promoting the decentralizing of money and  banking.

Many people are sympathetic to the idea of decentralization/state secession, similar to the corrections made in Eastern Europe in the early 1990s with the breakup of the Soviet Union. However, many people are unnecessarily concerned about their Social Security future, and with national security. And it has been a mistake to rely on the U.S. Supreme Court to ensure justice.

But in the long run, freedom and independence are far preferable to our current tyrannical centralization. Compromise is impossible.

First, we must confront the truth about Social Security, and ask whether a government-controlled, government-mandated retirement scheme even has any moral legitimacy, let alone whether it makes any economic sense.

People need to understand how they and future generations have been cheated by a government that takes your earnings and savings, and forces you to forfeit your right to control your own retirement future. Yes, these are distressing truths to many people, but if we can never get back what was stolen from us in our first several decades of adulthood, the people need to demand – at the very least – the restoration of their children and grandchildren’s right to keep what they earn and save.

Second, Americans need to let go of their faith in our constantly bumbling national security central planners. For a century now, our national security central planners have been corrupt, incompetent, warmongers, and imbeciles – anything but adept at keeping us safe.

If people actually think about it, they might then realize the absurdity in giving professional bureaucrats and politicians a monopoly on protecting a territory of thousands of square miles with a population of 300 million people from foreign aggression. Instead, what has happened is that such central planning rulers have used that monopolistic government and military apparatus to act aggressively against foreign nations, which is what has provoked the foreign nations to act against us, thus making us less safe.

And third, giving such a centralized bureaucracy a monopoly in ultimate judicial decision-making has not protected the people from injustice. Decisions by the Supreme Court have increasingly exemplified those of a banana republic. Most recently, the Supreme Court, in an 8-1  decision, backed the power of the police to break into the homes of innocents without a warrant and with impunity.

Moreover, such a powerful compulsory centralized bureaucracy has tended to attract the worst amongst us; those who are lacking in moral scruples. Of course giving such an agency the power to seize wealth and property from the people is bound to attract those who have no problem with coveting others’ wealth and property. And of course giving some people the privilege of being above the law, and the power to initiate acts of aggression against others, will attract those of an anti-social bent.

The distasteful reality is, as with the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, centralizing power and especially consolidating more power to the executive is destructive and dangerous. The U.S. has become increasingly totalitarian, with more centralized government control over the people — from FDR’s New Deal and his stealing gold from Americans, the Federal Reserve and Richard Nixon’s closing the gold window, to more recently George W. Bush’s police state DHS, TSA and the retaliation from Bush and Obama’s aggressions overseas.

People need to face the reality of central planning’s destruction of America, and do what the states of the Soviet Union did: Not “reform” but abolish that central power altogether.

Activists who are serious in their intention of freeing themselves and their families and their progeny from the tyranny of the Washington Leviathan, should advocate that states secede and regain their independence and sovereignty that is their right to have.

No central government has any moral authority to compel any individual or groups of people to belong to any association which they did not voluntarily join.

With independent states and no central power, the people’s right to control their own retirement

savings and their medical matters would not be infringed, and neither would their right to bear arms. In the case of any one state in which a government violates such rights of its population, the people have the freedom to move to a better, freer state. Currently, with all Americans under the compulsory authority of the federal government, it is difficult or impossible for people even to actually move to a different country to escape from the U.S. government’s further intrusions and tyranny.

And with independent states and no central power, the people’s right to self-defense would not be usurped by such a central power. The people of the states would have the right to arm themselves, have militias and whatever weaponry they believe is necessary to protect them from foreign aggression.

With independent states and no central power, there would be little to no ability (or desire) for any one American state to deliberately act aggressively against and provoke foreigners.

And, economically, what would happen if we got rid of all the compulsory, monopolistic federal bureaucracies – the Federal Reserve, IRS, HHS, FDA, EPA, TSA and DHS to name just a few – and required that all people live under the rule of law and that no one individual or business receive any extra privileges from the State?

The people of the states would have the freedom to discover and make use of natural resources that exist within their own territories, and not be compelled to be “dependent on foreign oil.”

There would be no federal raw milk raids, no drug raids, and no S.W.A.T. teams breaking into homes and murdering people for student loan defaults. And no Big Farms would get any special privileges at the expense of smaller family farms.

And the people would have the freedom to do business with whatever medium of exchange suits them — The Bernank be damned.

Americans need to have faith in the kind of free-market capitalism that raised the standard of living of all people of all walks of life.

The ruling class is expressing the same kind of fear-mongering with the debt ceiling issue that they expressed during the Wall Street Bailout fiasco, with the mainstream media acting as their obedient stenographers.  This should be seen as yet another example of how self-serving the elites in Washington really are – Republicans as well as Democrats. Because the truth is, they will never make things better, only worse.

Among the painful truths of the day is that central planning doesn’t work; it is immoral, and it’s destroying America.  We need to get rid of it.

Scott Lazarowitz is a libertarian writer and cartoonist. Please visit his website Reason and Jest.